The latest news from around the world with host Brooke Baldwin. The elements of a crime. I had cases trying to plead guilty and he said what you said is not a crime, i am not accepting your plea. Yesterday, heard what Michael Cohen said, said that is a crime, i accept your guilty plea. When they say he wasnt implicated in the cohen plea deal, john, is that a lie . Well, actually the president was not named in the indictment or in the plea agreement. Michael cohen did an audible during his allocution, said the president directed me to do it, not in the documents that were signed. That came as a big surprise. The bottom line is Michael Cohen admitted to a crime, rather than take a bullet for the president , he shot a seering missile. Right now, the white house is not articulating a defense. Rule one. Dont allow your client to speak. The more President Trump speaks, the worse it gets. What do you make of his defense . It is not a valid defense. Three defenses the white house has to make. Number one, Michael Cohen is not credible. Number two, the president should say i relied on my lawyer to take care of this legal mum bow jumbo and Cohen Strcrewed it up. This was not related to the campaign, it was personal. Trump wanted it secret, it is the john edwards defense. They need a defense. Cohen may not be done yet either. He had put himself out there, his attorney lanny davis suggested that he has more to tell to the Special Counsel, and to congress. In fact, he is even talking about testifying without i am unlt in immunity in front of congress. Lanny davis hitting the talk shows saying cohen has information to share with the Special Counsel that hes alleged that cohen knows that trump knew about the hack of the dnc before it became public. We dont know theres anything to substantiate that. Direct knowledge when and if he discusses this with the Special Counsel. Whats your reaction to that . The biggest question out of yesterday, will Michael Cohen cooperate with Southern District of new york and or the mueller team. It takes two. Both sides have to be willing. Clearly lanny davis is outright saying were ready, he wants to come in and cooperate. The question is, there are two questions. Does the Southern District want to cooperate him. If i was in their shoes, i would hear him out, lets hear him out. The big issue, can they corroborate him, back him up. It is one thing to have Michael Cohen say he knew about the emails beforehand, you cannot bank a criminal charge on uncorroborated word of a problematic cooperating witness like Michael Cohen with a lot of baggage himself. What is going to determine this ball of wax, can Southern District find something, email,
independent witness to back it up. They say they have a witness to back it up that cohen was directed by then candidate trump, and point to all of the things the fbi was able to confiscate when they raided his Properties Previously from recordings to emails to text messages, even encrypted texts sent in exchange. They seem to think they have quite a bit of ammunition. Bigger picture, if i step back, in the Southern District if trump were not the sitting president of the United States, would he be indicted now . I dont think just yet. Southern district is careful. Theyre not bringing a case until they do a full investigation. One of the areas to look at are the executives in the Trump Organization that apparently approve of payments. Thats a fruitful area of analysis. Were just seeing the tip of the iceberg. We dont know what the Southern District investigation is in its
totality. One thing if i was President Trump and his team, i would be very concerned. And quickly, because cohen says he has more he could tell mueller, one, why Hasnt Mueller already talked to him if he already has all of this extra information, but two, what could cohen know that mueller would find useful . One reason we think that mueller never spoke to cohen is because cohen was the target, and target of a Southern District investigation. It would have been legal j jeopardy to talk to him and he probably wouldnt have, and certainly wouldnt go before a grand jury. But he could be interested for a number of reasons. He was one of the people at the Trump Organization that floated the idea of building a trump tower Branded Hotel in moscow, had many conversations, attempts at conversations there. Has been with trump over ten years. He knows where the bodies are buried. He defines himself as trumps fixer, he solves his problems. He knows a lot about trump and
how the Trump Organization works, how the money flows and the real estate deals. If mueller had any information that would lead him down those paths, particularly the trump tower moscow, that would be an avenue he would want to talk to him about. Theres also been reporting that cohen, implying cohen knew that trump knew about the meeting with the russian lawyer at the trump tower, and of course the statements about that meeting are now in question. That would be another area they would be worth probing, Whether Cohen has the goods on any of these things remains to be seen, but these are some of the flags of areas we have seen come up that he could be interested in talking to cohen, at least seeing whats in the documents, see if he has anything to corroborate what he is saying. Let me say, too, Paul Manafort, not just cohen we are talking about in the last 24 news thats been shaking. Trump tweeting today about
manafort this morning, he writes i feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. Justice which he puts in quotes took a 12yearold tax case among other things, applied tremendo tremendous pressure, and unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to break, make up stories to get a deal. Such respect for a brave man. Based on the tweet, lets say he pardons manafort. Is that Obstruction Of Justice . Whenever you pardon somebody, youre undermining the judicial process, youre undermining a prosecution. It is a sign the president is trying to do what he can to undermine muellers investigation. I think it would be evident of his intent, but i dont think the pardon would be used by mueller as an act of obstruction. In other words, theres Plenty Of Acts Mueller could and will point to as obstruction by the
president , for example, firing of james comey, his orders, for example, to fire mueller himself or to try to get sessions to unrecuse himself, et cetera. I think he will focus on those as obstructionist acts because i think theyre more clear, but use this to show trumps intent. And certainly what you see here is a man, the president who claimed to be a Law And Order candidate, sounds more like a criminal whos pleased one of his henchmen remains silent rather than in Law And Order. Manafort could still make some deal to get his sentencing down, right, if he were to start cooperating with muellers team if he had something useful for them . No question. If theres not a pardon on the table, and i represented Paul Manafort, i would say you need to cut a deal right away. Get the d. C. Case wrapped up in district of columbia, get that wrapped into the virginia case,
try to get some sort of deal to get judge ellis to handle the whole thing, get a reduced sentence. Stand by. One of the reporters that broke the Watergate Scandal joins us next. I will ask Carl Bernstein how it compares and could impeachment be a reality. And President Trump will be at a Medal Of Honor ceremony at the white house. We will take you there live. But allstate helps you. With drivewise. Feedback that helps you drive safer. And that can lower your cost now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Anncr as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Ive been Making Blades here at gillette for 20 years. I bet im the first blade maker youve ever met. Theres a lot of innovation that goes into making
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account and they may or may not pay dearly in terms of their political lives, but this is a moment of truth for the Republican Party. They do not have to condemn or come to the aid of donald trump but people on capitol hill in the Republican Party need to say we are for the rule of law and this president has shown in the last week particularly his utter contempt for the rule of law. I know that viewers at home see the developments, legal cases, and are asking Where Do We Go From Here . I think it is not a time to be crystal balling. I think we in the media particularly as well as people watching at home need to be focusing on the actions and words of the president of the United States, and particularly in regard to the mueller
investigation. It is important to this country and its future that the Mueller Investigation which is a by The Book Nonleaking Credible Law Abiding Operation be permitted to finish its work. And then the American People can know much more about the underlying facts, but what we are seeing now is a kind of Sewage Seeping up from the white house swamp, particularly in what we are watching from donald trump, holding out, dangling a Pardon Possibility in front of Paul Manafort. It is unspeakable to watch this. I cant remember anything in our history let me finish, if i may. His words about brave Paul Manafort and the offense that has been committed against paul
manafort and his fine family and all the rest is extraordinary and i dont think any serious person and certainly no serious lawyer or Justice Department official that i know of thinks it is anything but an attempt to dangle a pardon, and a speaker on our air a few minutes ago said he doubted it was part of Obstruction Of Justice. Im not sure that i would agree with that. That the act of offering and signaling a pardon at this moment, he has every right to pardon any person he wants to, but the act of signaling it at this point might well be a real part of a pattern of obstruction as well as obstruction in itself. And apologies for stepping on you. Theres a little bit of a delay with our transmission here. When you talk about the president s reaction this morning, he did put out that
tweet really praising Paul Manafort showing that he has empathy for his case, calling him a brave man. We also heard him try to explain the Michael Cohen situation and virtually sweep it under the rug saying i paid for it and there was no Campaign Finance violation. Is this what you expected in terms of reaction from the president . Ive come to expect nothing but evasion and untreat from untruth from the president of the United States, the assertion he continually makes, no collusion, no collusion, no collusion. There seems to be considerable evidence of collusion. Perhaps by his National Security adviser, michael flynn, perhaps by his son in the trump tower meeting which was an invitation to collusion extended to his son and accepted with relish by
donald trump jr. The question is does Collusion Envelope donald trump himself or just members of his circle and campaign, and again, we have a long way to go here in terms of knowing the facts. Lets wait for mr. Mueller to give us the facts. But it is very important to realize that those of us that are reporters talking to people in the white house know that right now, donald trump is raging, that people around him regard his rages as bizarre at this point, and also that he is determined that the Mueller Investigation in some way be shut down so that there can be no chance that his presidency is shut down. Carl bernstein, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for being here. Up next, im be joined live by a White House Reporter who was on Air Force One as all of the news was breaking less than
24 hours ago. Hear what it was like to be inside the trump bubble. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller transitions™ light under control™
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in his inner circle, trumps former attorney, long time fixer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to 8 charges, implicating the president in a crime. Trumps former Campaign ChairPaul Manafort found guilty on 8 counts. As this news sinks in, the next 100 minutes, unusually quiet on Air Force One. Joining us now, a journalist that was on board that flight, politico White House Reporter lorraine woolert. You were the Pool Reporter yesterday on Air Force One. You said my window seat on Air Force One was like a prison. Explain. When youre on Air Force One, you dont have access to your phone or wifi, so youre literally in an information bubble. We did have a feed from fox news coming over the tv monitors on the plane, but we werent able to communicate, coul